Author: Joe Sarmiento

I had mentioned in last week’s post how I wasn’t ready to go offshore immediately after getting back from my trout trip. Fishing the bay was the perfect setting to get in the right frame of mind. I was ready to go back out and try to make something happen with the blue kind this week. I was able to get on a Fishing Syndicate sponsored trip midweek on the Legend. I went with my buddy Marcus Fain to host the trip. Robyn Yoshihiro is a captain on the boat and also reps FS. The trip length was an unusual…

While I had an enjoyable trip trout fishing in Montana, it felt really good to get back home. As always, I wanted to get back out fishing. I had gotten invited to fish a private boat in the Channel Islands this weekend, but I didn’t really want to go to all the trouble of venturing too far away. I also wasn’t mentally ready to subject myself to the vagaries of going offshore and chasing bluefin. Nope, I wanted familiar and reliable. Let’s fish the Bay! Coronado Islands yellowtail with John I reached out to my buddy John Anjard (above). John…

I had visions of being in waders, fly fishing streams teeming with trout, and catching them thanks to the expert advice of a local guide. My trip didn’t quite turn out that way… In the end, it worked out well enough. Despite not being able to secure that expert-guided trip, I managed to lay the groundwork for that ultimate trip where I’ll be better prepared to enjoy it. Getting Here Last Tuesday (July 13th), I flew from San Diego into the Bozeman, Montana airport. Airports are airports…just a place to get in and out of quickly (if you’re lucky), with…

Bluefin tuna hate me. It wasn’t always this way. There was a time that I had confidence throwing 40# flyline, I’d get bit and land tuna. Then somewhere along the way it got complicated. First it was light line, 20# (or even 15#) was what it took to get bit. I struggled with the choice (still do) of going down in line class to get bit vs. sticking with a line class that gave you a better shot at landing fish. Then poppers were the hot item. I bought my share. The struggle there was finding a reel to throw…

I had a pretty full week this last week. Lots of ground to cover, so I’ll be brief. I had a couple of industry events last Sunday (June 27th). There was the BD Outdoors – Yellowtail Shootout. I talked to BD boss Ali Hussainy there. Ali said about 80 boats/teams entered the tournament this year which he was a little surprised about but very happy with the turnout. Team Seament took the big fish jackpot with a fish that weighed in at just under 37-pounds! I know where they caught it because my buddy Rony Somo told me. Rony took…

When I fished on the New Lo An a few weeks ago, the bite was just off Ensenada. We could clearly see Todos Santos, the island that protects the bay in front of Ensenada, from the boat. At times we were so close, I actually had cell service. I wondered to myself… What would it be like fishing this bite on one of the local boats out of Ensenada? I made plans to find out. I reached out to Oliver Solis of Fishing Syndicate, as I knew he sponsored some of the boats down there. Oliver put me in touch…

The trap rig is a presentation that I like to use for live or dead fin bait when I’m trying to target lingcod or halibut. It’s used to target bottom-dwelling fish and you fish it the same way you’d fish a dropper loop. The trap rig allows you to fish a bigger bait (like a mackerel, sardine, sanddab, or small rockfish) to target a bigger fish while increasing your hookup ratio with the trailer or “stinger” treble hook connecting on some of those short bites you might otherwise miss. If a really aggressive fish bites your bait, it’s also comforting…

Surf fishing when sand crabs are abundant on the beach is high up there in terms of my favorite kinds of fishing. Last year, I didn’t get a very long surf fishing season though. I had about 2 weeks in July while visiting from Seattle. By the time I came back in September, the crab had disappeared and the season was basically done. Over those 2 weeks, I fished from Malibu to the beaches on the south end of Santa Monica Bay. During that time, I fished the sand every opportunity I could targeting corbina. Despite the compressed timeframe, I…

I think about my dad often. When it comes to matters regarding my mom, I always ask myself, “Would Dad approve?” I’ve had to make a lot of difficult decisions since he passed, and asking myself that question gives me peace no matter the outcome of my decisions. Now that our situation is more settled, it’s given me time to reflect on the lessons he taught me in general. One of them was always to give back…not just money, but more importantly time. My dad participated in a lot of service organizations, as well as, our church. Last week, it…

Two weeks ago, I was in Louisiana fishing for redfish. This last week, I fished for white seabass and bluefin. Red, white and blue…here’s how it went. Bluefin On The New Lo-An Tuesday (June 1st), I boarded the New Lo An for a 1.5-day trip. I used to do a lot of charters on the Eclipse (now the Tomahawk) back in the day. At the height of those trips, they had assembled a great young crew. One of those crewmembers was Capt. Adam Williams, who is now the main captain on the New Lo An out of Point Loma Sportfishing.…

A lot goes into deciding when to fish. Regardless of where you are going to go fish…in the surf to offshore, it’s good to understand the tides, how moonphase affects the tides, wind, weather, recent fish counts vs. signal etc. All of these things play into how successful or not a trip MIGHT BE. Yet when it’s all said and done, sometimes you just have to throw away all those things and go fish. This last weekend was one of those times. I got back from my Louisiana redfish trip to find that the last week was a real doozy…

My buddy Tony Caira and I met several years back fishing offshore on the New Lo An. Although we were both not too far along in our fishing journey, we knew enough to know we wanted to stay away from the crowd at the stern and mostly fished together on the bow. We got to be friendly on that trip and have since gone on several trips together. Every year, Tony takes out his best clients on hunting and fishing trips. It’s a way to bond beyond the typical business relationship. One of his annual trips is Venice, Louisiana. Tony…

One time, on a boat I won’t name, a long time ago when I first started fishing the sportboats, I went offshore in June. The weather was horrible. We hit empty kelp after empty kelp. And when all was said and done, the net output…for the whole boat mind you…was 4 rat-sized kelp paddy yellows. I vowed never again to go offshore that early again. Well it’s the middle part of May. I mentioned a couple articles back how I wasn’t mentally ready to go offshore. It’s like there’s that angel on one shoulder saying, “It’s not even June and…

I’ve often said that when the white sea bass start biting up in the Channel Islands, it’s a good idea to drop whatever you are doing and get in on the action. It may be your best opportunity of the year to catch sea bass. And it’s never a given that the bite is going to come back around. I never felt the urge to chase the elusive ghosts more so than this year. After being stuck in Seattle during the season last year, I took my own advice and booked some trips as soon as I saw that Capt.…

So I was talking last week how things seemed to be kind of slow. Then as soon as that publish button was hit, news started coming in about some of the great goings on that were happening… Let’s start with The San Diego, I reported last week that the yellowtail bite had dried up at the Coronado Islands. Looking to shake things up, relief captain Matt Bralla went offshore and put his passengers on limits of yellowtail (100 for 20 passengers) and 2 bluefin tuna. The yellows were that smaller variety kelp yellows, say 8-11 pounds, but it was good…

The yellowtail bite at the Coronados seems to have shut off for the time being. Maybe white seabass is in play, but the full moon was Monday, and I’m not seeing any white seabass catches posted. I was invited to go offshore on Friday (April 23rd) for a 1.5-day trip on the Tomahawk. I love that boat. When it was previously running as the Eclipse, I had many memorable trips aboard it. Their previous trip was wildly successful. Capt. Mike Loust got his 17 passengers on limits of bluefin ranging from 30 to 130-pounds (right)! The opportunity is definitely out…

I caught my first white seabass ever by accident. It was June of 2011, and I was riding the New Del Mar in Santa Monica Bay. Barracuda was the target species of the day. There were a bunch of kids on the boat that day because they had attended the Marina Del Rey Anglers club event, Youth Day At The Dock, that morning. I had volunteered at the event, and my ex-wife drove the kids out to join me for the PM halfie. The crew had rigged them up with flyline bait setups to target the cuda. I wanted to…

I didn’t get out last week…at least not on a boat. I hit my favorite South Bay (Santa Monica Bay) surf fishing spot. My surf fishing sensei, Randy Toji, told me that he went the previous weekend and saw the elusive ghosts (corbina) swimming in the skinny water of that near shore trough. Randy said he tried to get them to go on mussel because he wasn’t able to find any sand crabs, but they didn’t want to go. He said they were BIG too! That info was enough of a draw to make me want to check it out…

With all the rockfishing that I’ve already done this year, I have yet to catch a legal lingcod. Other than a couple shorts that I caught at Punta Colonet in January, I’ve blanked. It’s been kind of perplexing because it’s not like I haven’t had good opportunities. It’s not just me either, I haven’t seen many lingcod out on the boats or in the counts. My plan this week to beat this trend, was to go up to Northern California. Their rockfish opener is April 1st. I was going to go up and ride the Sea Wolf with my buddies…

Usually at this point in the year, I’ve already caught my first yellowtail. My first one of the year typically happens on the Colonet trip that I do in January. This year though, that trip was pretty disappointing, at least in terms of the yellowtail production. More importantly, there are typically few opportunities over the course of the year to catch yellowtails using yo-yo jigs. In my opinion, catching yellows in this fashion is only second to catching them on surface iron. Winding hard on your reel to get that jig moving, and it abruptly comes to a stop, then…

Joe Sarmiento has a fresh fishing report from a recent trip on the sportboats and gathers up the latest fishing intel from the fleet. It’s time to go fishing!

Despite the windy weather and multiple attempts to go, Joe Sarmiento was able to cash in on some rockfish opener action. He rounds up the experience in his latest fishing report.

Joe Sarmiento recounts a recent sportboat bass trip as rockfish season prepares to open. Check out his latest fishing report.

I remember back to when I first started fishing here in Southern California.  The San Diego had gotten into a good bite (for that time…over 20 fish) of yellowtail at the Coronado Islands.  I booked a ticket for later that week and made plans to travel down to San Diego to try my luck.  At the time, I was very green.  It wasn’t going to be my first yellowtail, but it was going to be my first since I had made a commitment to going all in on this salty way of life. During this early time in my learning…